Getty Paul George and Kawhi Leonard of the LA Clippers.
It seems Clipper Nation is just a tad over the moon at present — and with good reason. After the Los Angeles Clippers defeated Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks in Game 7 of the opening round of the NBA Playoffs, Kawhi Leonard and company have moved on to face the team with the league’s best record in the Utah Jazz.
The Clips are also officially the only NBA team representing Los Angeles still competing in the postseason. The Lakers, of course, were eliminated in six games in the first round of the playoffs by the Phoenix Suns. It was the first time LeBron James has ever been ousted in the first round, and it left the reigning NBA champs unable to repeat.
The Lakers’ elimination coupled with the Clips’ win over Dallas also seems to have done something else: It created the perfect storm for triumphant Clippers fans to begin trolling those who follow that other team from L.A.
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Clippers Fans Troll Lakers Fans on Twitter
After watching Leonard finish just one assist shy of a triple-double in the Clippers’ series win over the Mavs, (he had 28 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in Game 7) Clipper Nation decided to celebrate by having a little fun on social media — at the expense of Laker fans. A few other fan bases chimed in, too, but overall, Clips fans had quite the time.
Here are some highlights:
“Clippers tanked to avoid facing the lakers”
Lakers fans really thought they were dancing on the Clippers grave when they went down 0-2 just to get sent home in the first round and watch us advance LMAO
Lakers fans watching the Clippers advance to the 2nd round
Lakers lost, Clippers won & no Playoff P or Pandemic P slander on the TL.
All is right with the world
All jokes aside, LeBron and company had to go to work without Anthony Davis, who strained his groin in Game 4, missing both subsequent playoff games. Both Lakers superstars missed significant time this season due to injury, with James missing six weeks with a high ankle sprain, while Davis played 36 of 72 regular-season games.
In the all-time series between the two L.A. squads, the Lakers clearly have bragging rights, with 150 wins to the Clippers’ 77. The Clips swept the season series this year, 3-0, taking full advantage of a banged-up Lakers group.
Clippers Aren’t Thinking About the Past
After getting bounced by the Denver Nuggets in the semifinals of the playoffs last year, the only team left standing repping L.A. is not focused on that loss, but, rather, on the present.
“Last year was last year,” Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said after the win over Dallas, per Sports Illustrated. “We talked about it when the season started; that’s over. We’ve gotta look going forward we can’t keep looking behind and what happened in the bubble, that s–t’s over.”
The Clippers found themselves on the brink of elimination against the Mavericks still but found a way to get both points and solid defense when they needed them.
“I mean, Game 3 when we were down 30-11, I think we were one or two plays away from almost getting swept,” forward Nic Batum said. “And we find something in us like resiliency and some toughness, like, OK, we can’t go down like that, we are a good team. We are a good team and we have to show it and we came back. After Game 3, we said, ‘OK, they can’t beat us twice after that.’ And we did it. We did a good job.”
Next up? The No. 1 seed Utah Jazz.
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